What is the Grammar Reference Dictionary?
The Grammar Reference Dictionary (GRD) is a reference to grammatical constructions. There are two aims: firstly, to organise grammar points in a way they can easily be searched and the information easily retrieved; and secondly, to give a detailed overview of grammatical constructions.
Consider this scenario: you are reading a book in Korean and come across an unfamiliar grammar pattern or one you have studied before, but cannot remember the details. At this point, you need to quickly search for and read up on the grammar so you can get back to reading the book. The GRD is created for this purpose. Opening a textbook and finding the correct page is slow and cumbersome. Reading through lessons again is an inefficient use of time. There needs to be a way to quickly look up and understand the grammar pattern.
Organising grammar patterns by usage enables fast retrieval of information. Take for example 걸(요) which has three uses presented like this:
Usage
i) Contrary conjecture
비가 올걸.
I think it will rain (contrary to the weather report).
ii) Non-committal conjecture
철수 아빠도 키가 클걸.
철수’s father is probably tall as well.
iii) Regret
우산을 가져올걸.
I wish I brought an umbrella (contrary to what I did).
In order to quickly find the information, one can simply evaluate the three example usages and then read up on the corresponding entry (click on the yellow text to test). There is no need to read through descriptions of usages not immediately relevant.
Entries in the GRD are constructed with this in mind. The typical format for each entry is as follows.
Usage
– Overview of all the main usages with an example. Sometimes this alone is enough information.
Conjugation
– A table of conjugations if by chance that is what you want to look up.
Contents
– Table to jump to the desired page section.
Introduction
– Conceptual understanding of the grammar point.
Usage descriptions
– An explanation of the grammar point according to its varied usages.
– Introduction
– Key example
– Further explanation
– Further examples
Additional details
– Further points worth mentioning.
Associated grammar
– Links to similar or comparable grammar forms.
See also
– Further references worth considering.
Bibliography
– Not giving credit to sources is arrogant and dishonest.
User examples
– User submitted examples of sentences they have found or created themselves. Seeing and comprehending grammar in the wild is the final stage of learning.
The obvious question is why should learners use the GRD over other free resources. Put simply, other free resources:
– are written as lessons rather than a quick reference,
– are typically low effort, lacking accuracy and detail,
– do not clearly differentiate usages.